Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Running in place

I've been saying that Donald Trump isn't really running for president but for King of All Media. Tonight's epiphany: He isn't running for anything -- or, at least, he isn't actually moving. He's just vamping on a treadmill, playing each day by ear, saying whatever comes to mind. He has no direction, no plan, no strategy.

He certainly isn't running against Hillary. Yes, he keeps saying "crooked Hillary," but that's not a game plan. He had five weeks between the time he locked up the nomination and the time she did, and yet he didn't lay any serious pipe, line up any helpful surrogates, run any effective ads. Even today, in the wake of Orlando, when one might have thought he'd have some way of tying Hillary to a failure of security, he directed almost all his brickbats at Obama. Put aside the fact that Obama's positives are high and Trump's are low. Put aside the creepiness and ineffectiveness of hinting darkly that Obama is secretly trying to help the terrorists (reminding everyone of his flunko birther days). Put aside the fact that nobody thinks Obama is a "fool," and saying that reminds everyone that Trump is one. Put all that aside, but the main point is that Obama isn't the target. He's not the candidate. Say what one will about the moral repugnance of Trump's attempt to capitalize on this horror -- but he isn't even employing good tactics.

When he had no response to her San Diego speech, where she knocked him around the ring, the takeaway seemed to be that she is a formidable contender who will be too much for him. But it's looking more and more as though he would have no strategy if he were running against a potted plant.

The fact is, he's got nothing. His candidacy is going to collapse at astonishing speed, and with it the Senate. Next stop: the House.